Hi.

Did you know that you can watch last podcast on the left and side stories on our Patreon right now? Yes, that's Patreon.com slash lastpodcastonthelep. But over on TikTok, you can see the hottest, tightest, funniest clips from the show right there. It's TikTok. TikTok.

It's at LP on the left. It's the same as Instagram. You already followed Instagram. Why don't you go follow TikTok?

But it's on TikTok.

Yeah. Because seeing is believing. Yeah. So just go check it out, watch it.

Go send our podcast to China. I love TikTok. The crocodile is my favorite. TikTok, that's the only one he knows.

There's no place to escape to.

This is the last. There's a lot of ways you do, because I feel like that's my dream, is that we get, like, Hellman's, man. That's what I want. I want one big sponsor.

But what would that sponsor be if it was, are we on yet?

Okay, we'll start when we start. We're just doing levels and stuff like that, but we don't worry.

It's off the record. What is the sponsor of du jour for you guys? If you were like, we got the call that Hellman's mayonnaise wants to sponsor boar's head. Yeah, boar's head would be great. And I'm miracle whip.

Publix. See, that's divisive.

Did you say Publix?

Yeah, Publix.

Grocery store. Incredible. I once left a script in a grocery cart at a publix. Like, a locked, secret script, because I was just reading it. They printed it for me to read as I was prepping to go do this thing, and I was in Atlanta, and those things are given to you under threat of death. Like, you do not lose this. So I'm shopping in a publix, and I really liked their deli section, the fried chicken Friday night meal. They would have great sides. And I was all excited about that and got a slice of rainbow cake from the bakery. And I treated myself to some yummy things I was going to take back to my hotel. And I get back to the hotel, and I lay out this really luxurious spread of grocery store fried chicken and Mac and cheese, and probably get in my underwear, flip open the laptop, ready for a night of documentaries. And then all of a sudden, I go, where's my script? I need to. Oh, my God.

And it's like a top secret I.

Ran like chariots of freaking Fire, I ran. I'll never forget the dread in my body thinking, like someone's going to because it has my name all over it.

Oh, yeah.

And it's got very crucial plot details of things that would be, like, a big problem for me.

People would be mad because people talk about that, like, the people finding scripts in trash cans and shit. They pull it out, and then all of a sudden, it's all over the Internet.

Yeah. Like, cache Polaroids that I just happen to leave around.

You got to bring them.

Understand?

How else do you sleep?

Yeah.

If you would have left the script at Winn Dixie, you'd have nothing to worry about, because they can't read.

Welcome to last podcast on the left, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with Henry Zabrowski. Ed Larson.

Hello.

And Henry, would you like to introduce today's guest?

Now we have what I'd say. I actually said this the other day, the modern lawn Chaney guy. These genre lord prince. Right. You said the modern Dick Cheney. No, that's for private. Again, he had a lot of good ideas, and he actually thought about the country. Yeah, that's a good way to start.

That just gave me a guest boner, the fact that you introduced me as our launching.

This is David Dusmalch.

Oh, hi, guys.

I'm so excited.

I'm so excited. Every time I think about the fact that we're friends now, because having been so obsessed with the way that you guys have done what you've done and loved the show for so long, and then the fact that it was like, passion, and she kept being like, dave, you have to get into last podcast. And I was, don't. I'm. When I'm working or when I'm writing, I put on music. I don't listen to podcasts. I'm not really into the podcasting thing years ago, and she's just like, no, David, this is. This is for you. And she and her best friend Karen were just like, every time. And then I finally was like, you know what? Fine, forget it. I'll listen to these chuckleheads. And now I'm here. I'm so excited. And thank you for that introduction. It means a lot. I really appreciate it.

No, dude. I mean, honestly, going back through all of your work, you're here, technically, to promote your new film, late night with the devil, which is going to be very exciting for the people that are at home, because we are the people who listen to our show. Yeah. And I love the mill I made it halfway through and then I shut it off because I was like, I'm going to see this in theater. I'm going to pay money to go see this.

It looks unbelievable. That's like a great, great compliment. I've never heard that before. And you go like, God. Because people will say, like, I watched your thing and it was so awesome. But have someone say to you, I was watching your thing and I stopped it.

Yeah. Because I can't do the laptop with the movies. This appoints me. I want it either on the screen, because I have a big TV. Humble brag.

Oh, yeah.

Because that's what I want.

Right?

Actually, I think I can have a.

Do you measure each other's. I measure by.

He does have the biggest television.

I've been in your home. Yes, you have. Have I been to your home? I don't think. I haven't been to your home.

I've been outside of your house, Mark.

I've been invited over to your house. I've been to parties in your home. I've seen your TV. I've seen your vinyl collection, Henry. It's begging for an invitation. No, you come over. You guys have been to my house numerous times. Love it.

You have a guest where people.

Not a big TV, but.

No, but you don't need one. You don't. You live in a very cool, spooky house.

One of the things. My favorite thing about your house is your wall of horror sound effects records. It's just amazing. You've got like, a musical seance from Rosemary Brown, which is one of my favorite records ever. It's like this amazing compilation from this woman who said that she could channel the spirits of dead composers. And she would write her own, like, she's like, okay, this is what Beethoven wants me to write. And she would write some in the style of Beethoven. This is what Mozart wants me to write, and write some. And it came with, like a full booklet and. Yeah, musical seance. That's when I was like, I like this guy. I grew up in Kansas, and this is so obsessed with all things horror. Once I got the bug. But then at our local Montgomery ward, there was this vinyl record with a picture of Dracula on the COVID and blood dripping down. And it said, like, the monster mash and sounds of Halloween or whatever. And I was like, what is this? I begged and begged and begged and begged. And it was a pretty religious household where, like, Halloween was not celebrated.

I was the one decorating the front yard and pissing off my parents because I made such a big deal out of it. And my father finally relented, which he rarely ever did. And he got me this record. I brought it home, I put it right on the record player. I started listening to it, and it scared me so bad that I was crying, and my mom was furious. My dad's like, see, this is what happens. So then she had him take it back, get a refund, and they got me some bubblegum pop Halloween album of funny, goofy songs.

But it's a mummy time. I also love those.

But I eventually really regretted that. And now it's a lifetime obsession. I collect Halloween vinyl, and I'm so lucky I have the wife partner that I have in Eve that she would not only proudly display her nerd ass husband's Halloween record collection, but that she'd frame them and mount them. So beautiful.

Well, I say that about Natalie, about how, like, if you weren't in for this whole package, I don't know what you're in here.

Scratcher. Sometimes.

Yeah, it is. Goth turtles all the way down. If you get into this home.

No, I love those records. You just put them on, and it's just. And there was so many variations and hard to find ones. And a lot of the actors. That's just a bunch of screaming. Yeah. The actors that I love did a lot of cool shit on the side, or. These were great recording studios. It would come that time a. It was a money thing that they could be like, oh, we're going to make a cool, spooky record. But, like, oh, my God. Boris Karloff speaks. Peter Lori had his own. There was so many great ones.

How have you not done this? We got to do this. You need a spooky album.

You heard it here first. All right. We need to produce it. I would love to, because it's like a couple scary stories and then, like, just sound effects.

He loves weird noises. That's most of what he listens to.

Yeah. What's the spookiest noise the spookiest sound can hear? As a spooky sound collector, I think it is. There's this one album that really messed me up as a kid, and it was on that same record that I told you guys about. And I think it was the moment that it turned for me, and it was a werewolf eating an infant.

Awesome.

I think I heard that. Yeah. It's so messed up that they would put that on and you hear the baby crying and you hear the crunching of the bones and the flesh. And I was just like, I'm not supposed to be it's like Werner Herzog during grizzly, man. It's like, this is not something that I am supposed to be hearing. Timothy Treadwell is like what I was hearing, and it really messed me up, man. The suffering of children.

Yeah. All right.

I think I may have heard that at one point. Well, I'll play it for you because I own it.

Honestly.

Wonderful.

Just makes me hungry.

And during the Halloween season, it's fun, because every night I try to put on a different record with the kids, and they love it, and we'll carve pumpkins or just listen to the old records. It's great.

That's so wholesome.

Yeah. So you came out, you know me.

You came out the chasm spooky.

Yeah, I did. I think I came out the chasm spooky and inclined towards whatever reasons why it was always Halloween. It was always even the monsters on Scooby Doo. It was. Anytime there was a Halloween episode of anything, I was just like. That was the thing I loved the most and wanted. But that was compounded by being raised in a very religious household. It was very conservative community where Halloween and anything to do with horror rock and roll was considered opening yourself up to the dark side. And of course, I'm of a spirit that when you lock a door, the first thing I'm going to do is look for the picks to get in there. And then for me, a big impact was after schools rushing home to be watching cartoons, and they would have these stingers on Fox 41 in Kansas City in the end of an episode of Transformers, it would be like. And tune in Friday night for cremation mortems, Friday nightmare at 10:00 or 1030. And so I started sneaking down and just getting lost in the world of the horror host cremation mortem, who then shows me all the ham.

Speaking of Hammer films, like, all the Hammer stuff and universal stuff and RKO things and all the weird, obscure B and Z movies that I was just like.

And it was that obsession that got you for late night with the devil.

Right.

Because the movie, and this is not a mean thing. It's essentially a hyper serious repossessed.

Sure, exactly.

Repossessed, which I love repossessed because you built a host character, like a talk show host character, which is super funny, and it feels lived in.

Thanks.

But it kind of came from this kind of education as a kid with horror hosts.

Sure. So the horror host thing, actually, in a more direct way, it's what got me the job, because after my mom passed, I did a lot of reflecting upon, like, oh, why have I always been so obsessed with horrors? Thinking that kind of drove my mom crazy. But we did bond a few times. I remember once watching Psycho with her. She let me watch that and holding my hand when I was a kid because I got scared. And then I was thinking about that maternal or paternal or whatever figure that Karen that takes you into safely across the river, who was the horror host, which for me was cremation. She was the first. A lot of things for me, like first crush, first impression of this sexuality that I was really turned on by this first safe person that would make dumb jokes about whatever we were watching that night or whatever I was watching didn't matter. She was the safe person for that. So I wrote this article for Fangori, and Phil Nobel Jr. Who is the editor there, had said, if you ever want to write something, let me know. And I was like, I feel like I've got an article that could be interesting.

And I told him my pitch and he was like, go for it. So I wrote this article about horror host and that relationship that they can have with us. And then the guys, Colin and Cameron Karens, who live in Australia and are just horror nerds, cinema files. Incredible, really talented, wonderful guys. They read Vangoria and they read that article and they were like, that's the guy we want. Which is weird, because when you, who are listening see this movie, you're going to say, who in the fuck thought Dave Dasmalchin for this role? Because I know I fit into a certain target. I guess when you think about the kinds of roles maybe that I normally approach or what people think of me as, I, as a casting director, producer would never have thought in looking at this script, you know who we got to get? Let's get that Des malkian guy on the phone.

Yeah, we got to get it.

Because you're not charming.

Is it insult to say that you're creepy?

I'm creepy. I am embraced what I have and I am grateful for it the way that I like to. I hope this doesn't sound like self whatever. It sounds really gross to compare yourself to people who are legends, but I guess I could say I aspire to heroes like Chris Lee, Ed Vidza Price, and Lon Chaney, the ultimate hero to me, because he just disappeared into the roles. And no, my nose will never be lifted to anything in any space. That's good storytelling. I would much rather do an incredibly well executed genre piece than a mediocre melodrama. Yeah, you know what I, when you.

Were eventually in the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic.

That's right. Or the tiny Tim biopic.

Float that out.

There we go. I just put that out of the universe. Let's make that happen. You know about his haunting, right? I don't suppose you know how he died. Yes. Well, he didn't actually die because the legend is that tiny Tim died during the performance on stage.

Was he had a retirement home.

It was at some sort of masonic lodge or something like that. It was a bunch of ladies that wanted to do something nice, booked him. The problem was actually not enough people showed up, so the show got canceled. And so he was just there in this Masonic lodge and famously died there. And to this day, you can still hear his voice. There's the sound. But yeah, supposedly he haunts the Masonic lodge where he died. Well, if I were to get the honor of playing tiny Timson day once I was approached for a biopic, this is a true story. I'll send you guys the email that I got and you can post it. It was to play Michael Jackson.

Amazing. The problem is that you see all the calls from your people and you're trying to sit here, figure, is this what I want to do? Is this is what I'm doing? So I guess I'm post Pepsi Ed Michael. Is that what I am? I'm heal the world Michael.

Yeah. When you get emails like that, can you ask curiosity follow up questions? Not knowing that literally all I said was, let's do this and we are the world. And then I said, let me know. And I never heard back from this. It was a guy across the world somewhere. Leanne Landry, I think was his name. I don't remember, but I remember getting that email and being so touched. It was probably a DM. I don't even know if it was an email, but it was like a very formal approach to is this is really something that we feel strongly that you would do well. But I'm honored. I love the idea. I mean, I've come from a theater background, and again, I'm raised watching Lon Chaney and other actors that can quote unquote, transform, whatever that means, because you're still bringing a lot of yourself and who you are as a person into each role that you're playing and you're trying to bring all of your history and your dynamics physically and vocally. But I love this notion, this idea that you could be watching something and be like, that looks like that guy, that was the crazy guy in the Dark Knight, or that looks like that guy that was on the Ant man movies, that can't be that guy because that's his voice or the way he laughs or the thing.

All that is. So it's such a challenge that I love so much. So when late night with the devil, when these guys, they're working with Steven Schneider and Roy Lee, who owns spooky pictures, and Roy Lee is this incredible longtime friend of mine who just sent me the script and their pitch deck, and he said, hey, these guys would like for you to be in their film. And I thought, just as I heard the log line, I was again going back to, what? What about this guy, Dave Desmalchin, that we know and love makes you think he's the guy to be a late night talk show host? Because late night talk show hosts are charming and they're fun. You guys are talk show hosts, and you're charming and you're funny and you're sweet, but luckily, you're mostly off camera. Yes, that's the idea. No, I think I just was baffled by it. And as soon as I started reading the script and looking at their materials, I was hooked. I was like, I got to do this. And so then I just dove into on a nightly basis, watching hours of what I could scrap up on YouTube, from Don Lane episodes to Carson monologs and Letterman monologs, and trying to manufacture this notion of a guy who could do that.

It's very weird because in this entire separate skill set of performance, totally. It is another type of performer, because as a late night talk show host, you are have to, you have to be broad, let people in. You're going into people's living room each night. So it's supposed to kind of feel like that somebody you trust who's also like, he's, like, fun in the moment, but you do a great job of. One of my favorite pieces is the montage of the previous episodes of all the dumb shit that has happened in all the seasons. I love all of that.

What is the log line? What's the concept behind this movie? Jack Delroy, who I'm playing, it's 1977. He's, like, literally 40th in the ratings when Carson was, like, at number three. And his show is just on the chopping block, and he's had the worst run you can imagine. His wife, his life partner, his soulmate passed away tragically of cancer. He's kind of maligned in the press as, like, the second rate, and he's going to be canceled any day.

I don't know what that's, like, canceled in the 70s is like a whole nother thing.

Different kind of canceling. He's coming up on. It's Halloween night. He knows that that call is coming any second. And so it sweeps week. He. It sweeps week. And so he needs. He needs a win. He needs the ratings to just skyrocket. And he throws everything he can possibly imagine at the stage that night and including some choices that are compromising to maybe his ethical compass and compromising to what we would deem as, like, maybe, I guess, ethical as opposed to moral, but definitely some real questionable choices of what he's willing to put up there to try and get those eyeballs. And things go far more well than he could have ever imagined as far as trying to create a night of shock television. And what is so wonderful about the way the script is constructed, and I hope people enjoy this as they fall into the mystery of it all, is under the immense pressure and the kind of fracturing of the nervous breakdown that he's having. Coupled with his alcoholism, his perception just of ultimate reality is starting to become untethered. And you're watching the show happen in real time. So it's a 90 minutes movie because it's found footage.

Yeah. It's just like you're watching an episode of the show. And so you've got. Good evening, night owls, and thanks again for being here. Wow, we had a big win this week with the Yankees. Any fans in the house tonight? Yeah. That was great. And he does a whole thing like that, and then we get these quick blips during commercial break where it's like, okay, we got to get to what's going. And then people are talking backstage, and the energy is building and building, and shit just goes great, you know?

It's cool. I actually think that the character wasn't wrong. I think that's solid producing, and I actually would love to have an actual demon in.

Do what you do. Hi. We're going to do an event in New York, and I was trying to get a real exorcist in to come and be part of the convince these.

Two, because I want to do seance. No, I don't want to do a seance somewhere else. I want to go to the museum down in Burbank, and I want to do a live seance. I think that's a great idea.

I work here every day. I don't want to have to deal with bullshit from ghosts.

Hey, man, they just have unfinished business, and they need to be monetized on the podcast.

I have deadlines before we became friends. One of my Halloween gatherings included a seance that was kind of breaking some of the rules of seance etiquette because it was a group of people around the table, but then there was, like, another 80 people watching from above and from the side, but it was just perfectly silent. The energy in the room was insane. It was a pendulum style. So there was a pendulum from the roof of the house that came all the way down to the table. And that when she began leading the event and the questions started watching the way that it goes, I'm sitting there being like, there's no way that anybody's touching this because I'm here. And then at one point, and people were doing what you guys did, you fucking pussies.

I want it.

They were like, don't do this. Don't do this is a big mistake. Big mistake. And I'm like, oh, come on. It can be a blah, blah, blah. So it's going. And some question came up for what it was. And we had candles up, way up high in, like, the window sills that you had to get, like, on a ladder to put up, and one fell on somebody's shoulder. The screams. People ran out of the house. Some have never come back. Eve also tried to buy. She found on ebay a supposedly cursed Ouija board. And that was the one where I did put my foot down a little bit. I was like, I feel like if it's already been deemed cursed, like, what does that mean? Why would we want to buy that storage unit? It's, like, my favorite show as a kid, which was Friday the 13th. The series where you've got the lock vault where Uncle Jack kept all of the cursed items from his curiosity shop. That's what I want to get a storage you. But it's in Glendale. When I die, no one will know about it. And they're going to do that.

Like, what's it called? Where they break.

Storage wars. That's another movie, man. That is literally another film.

I love that.

Storage wars is amazing.

Storage wars, it's an unscripted series that we didn't know we needed.

That's incredible. I got good advice on how to handle cursed objects that I could give you off air. Do they talk about. Because that's my goal. That's, like, one of the things I'd like to move towards is getting some, because we're supposed to get some in the mail, but it's at the PO box.

You would never be serious enough to do a seance. I know you because throughout the year, so many times. Henry's always like, I really want to make this episode like, spooky and creepy. And I write it to spooky and creepy, and then he comes in with some silly voice.

But the difference is that when we're laugh too, but in a seance, you can't fuck around. But you can't fuck around in a seance. Well, what if you get Jackie Gleason? He was very serious about aliens.

He was very serious about aliens.

He was?

Yeah.

I feel like I could talk with him about that.

I'm reading something I was going to ask you guys. Have you read American cosmic yet? No. Okay. I just got it recommended. I figured you guys might know about it. I just started and I really liked it.

Have you read 2083 enders Brevik's manifesto? I can send that in an email.

Thanks, I appreciate it. Declaration, norwegian independence. Love that from your grave.

Can I ask you. So this is a kind of basic, very late night conversation because when we had you for our goth mandate, we couldn't talk about movies. We couldn't talk about any of the shit because of the strike.

Right.

But I wanted to ask you first of all, just straight up, what was the moment that you knew you could pay your bills being an actor?

When did it happen? Henry's waiting and he needs to know.

How do I get in there? They keep telling me this is going to be the.

Is. This is going to be a long story, but you asked a question that I feel like needs, like a backstory to it. I go to Chicago from Kansas to study theater at DePaul theater school. I developed this raging addiction to opiates during college. So by the time I get out, I am fucking just strung out. And life sucks for a good couple of years. I finally get clean five years into that. Congrats. Thank you. 22 years. This year I decide to go. I get invited by a friend to do a play, storefront theater, and a number of opportunities to do theater in Chicago that is free. So I was working as a telemarketer. By day, I was doing books.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I was a telemarketer for Timelife books. It's so funny. And at night, I was an usher in a movie theater, Webster play cinema in Chicago. And back when they still had the unionized projectionists. So I would go and hang out with the union projectionists and smoke cigarettes and watch movies up in the booth. It was the best. So I get back on stage and I got an opportunity. A casting director literally said this. He's like, oh, my God, I thought you died.

And I was like, casting directors are great.

Still here. And he brings me in. I got a commercial in 2006. It was when the transition happened for me. I got a commercial, I booked a commercial. It was a singular wireless commercial. It was my first time ever on a set like that. And it was me and my future father in law having a phone call where he says something like, I'm looking forward to being your father in law. And I say, well, thanks, Jim. Jimbo. Jimmy crack coin. And I don't care. And the call drops, and then he's laughing, but I hear silence. So I'm like, oh, sorry. That commercial was directed by the director of my favorite documentary. And so when I got that job, not only did I get paid, what do you get? A couple grand to do a commercial, but Chris Smith, who made american movie, anyone who's listening that doesn't know american movie. Coven. Coven. Sounds like Coven. It's going to be called Coven. So, Chris, that commercial was a huge success, and I was able to transition into then doing theater full time, which was only paying, like, maybe $500 a week. And those were good, like, good theaters, but the commercial paid.

So that was the moment when it went national. And back in those days, commercials paid a lot differently.

Oh, yeah.

Led into 2007, casting director for the Dark Knight came to town and held a big casting call for all the creeps and weirdos. And he was casting the opening sequence with the bank heist with the clowns. And so that's what I was at a giant cattle call for. And his assistant, who's a lovely guy, saw me in the crowd. He goes, you're in that jimbo commercial? And he goes, we were just talking about that. And he goes, hey, John. John Papsiders, legendary casual. He goes, this is that guy. And he's like, oh, yeah, you're really funny. And he kind of looks at my weird face, and he's like, are you ready for the scene? I was like, yeah. And he goes, come on. So he takes me in this room. I do this scene, which is a dummy scene, but it's a guy being like, oh, this guy, whoever put me on this job, I heard he dresses up weird, and he thinks he's going to get this money, blah, blah. And it was that moment, man, that all actors dream of, that lottery moment when the ball landed on the number that I called.

It was my lifelong collecting comic books, dreaming of cinema, being such a fan, and hoping and praying that someday I'd be able to go chase that dream. And he says to me, you're really good. He's like, this is really good. Do me a favor. Go home tonight, take all this shit you're doing. It's great, but you got to put it here. Yeah. And I'm pointing to my eyes for those who are listening, he says, put it here. And that note made sense to me.

Because film acting, it's just taking all that energy.

It's a magnifying glass, and I'm coming from the stage.

I came from years of being like, great. A little smaller. Yeah.

So I went home and I did that. I tried to figure out what that meant. The shaking of the leg and the twitch with the thing and all this. How do I put that in my eyes? Came back the next day, just me. And there's Christopher Nolan sitting in a small room, and he's got a little handheld camcorder. And that happened. And it wasn't all know, wine and roses, because I was not making much money. I didn't have a good rate. I was just making scale and occasionally getting jobs. So there was lots of unemployment collection, and just going on hundreds of auditions. But that was the last time I had a day job. And I transitioned into then being a full time actor. Although I would say years, like 20 10, 20 11, 20 12. There was years that I made $27,000.01 year. $30,000.01 year.

It's wild when you do stuff like, so do you feel like it's a thing of fate almost, that you ended up as like, a genre?

I feel like it's a confluence of a lot of things. Do we gravitate towards the stuff that razzes our berries? Certainly. Do we move towards energetically and passionately the things that really inspire us. Were there times when I probably wasn't able to connect with material that I was auditioning for? That wasn't stuff that spoke to me in a way that I could connect to stuff that did speak to me. And maybe a lifetime of studying and reading comic books and watching horror and Sci-Fi movies helped me understand that. For me personally, the approach to genre was no different than it would be if I was doing Tennessee Williams or Shakespeare. I would just give 100% in a way that you could get lost in the thing. But the fate, there's that thing. I know so many actors, and I'm not being humble. It's just I know so many actors who just are more versatile, more can repeat emotional states of being, more, have the capacity to do work that is far superior than my own. Sure. So why did I happen to be at that place on that day? Why did that all stuff come together?

Who fucking knows, man? It's a total head scratcher. I just try to be.

Well, you were ready for the moment.

Definitely was ready for the mean. If there's a character that I would be, give me, give me five. I can do this. If you said, like, he's a joker's henchman, I'm going to do it in.

A way that I. Let's get the bet, boss. Yeah, that's my verse.

You love the show. Like, the thought that when each villain had, like, his entire team had the matching.

Bosses. Take the. When you. Did you have any FaceTime with Heath Ledger?

Oh, yeah, a lot, in fact. I mean, I worked on the Dark Knight. I did like three or four days in Chicago. There's the big parade sequence. That was a huge sequence. I mean, there's thousands of extras and tons of actors. My first day on a film set, you got to understand this. My first day on a film set, I have been told that they also gave dummy sides for the actual production. So I went to an office, signed away, whatever, got these sides that said, there he is. Let's get him. I thought I was a driver in a truck. So I practiced for a week before. Every time I get my car, there he is.

Let's get him.

That was the lines that I was ready to do. I show up, do my fitting the day, the night before shooting, and I'm in a cop uniform with a big bullet hole in the leg. And I was like, why am I in a police uniform? And they're like, he's very secretive. You'll see.

How do I prepare, though, on the day of work?

And it says, and one of the producers comes to my trailer, gives me the sides for the day, and he says, so this is actually the scene we're doing. You have been with the joker pretending to be policemen, and then you're shooting at the mayor, trying to kill the mayor, and you get shot in the leg, and then you're going to be kidnapped. The first thing we shot was me in the back of the ambulance with Harvey Dent, Aaron Eckhart, and, and I look at the scene and it know he's asking me questions. All it says about the thug is like, an intimidating thug. The thug smirks, and then he asks me another question. And the way it was on the page felt like the thug had the upper hand in an intimidation way.

Yeah.

And as you like, like my therapist often says to me, when the student is ready, the teacher arrives when the moment is ready. I was ready for this thing because I'm looking at that going, I'm not more intimidating than Aaron Eckhart's like that big square jaw. Like, he's muscly. He's like, he could totally intimidate the crap out of me. What's more intimidating? Me trying to do a tough face smirk. What if you just giggled when somebody says, like. And I said, and what if I can't formulate the thoughts that I'm trying to say? What if interior is actually, I'd love to help. I'd love to be of service here, but the only thing that's going to come out of my mouth is just giggles because I've got some kind of condition that's almost like someone put a filter over my voice box. And how terrifying would that be?

Because you're working with the Joker.

Yeah.

So that has to be part of the interview process of working for the Joker is that you would have to be a creepy guy. You have to be fairly intimidating without necessarily, because he's not a big guy. The Joker is like, he's asymmetrical.

God. That is what I did and luckily liked it. And it just went from there. And I was so, but was he.

In character the entire time?

Any character? He was so sweet. So I went in here and makeup my first day on a film. So I walk in here and make up Heath Ledger's at the far. Like, I don't know if they were taking turns DJing or what, but he was playing this really cool music, which I didn't know. And I'm a big music guy, so I was fascinated by, who is this that he's listening to? Next to him is Christian Bale. Next to him is Gary Oldman.

Next to him is. I feel the vomit, like, rising to my next.

Then me, then Maggie Gyllenhaal, and then Nestor carbonal. All in this long ass hair and makeup trailer. Peter Rob King is overseeing and coming and doing touches up. Peter Rob King is the legendary makeup designer and artist who did legend and alien and Temple of doom. And all these mean. Heath, totally. Welcome. Shakes my hand. Very nice. Everybody was so cool. But with Heath in particular, because we had more time together, I haven't held guns since I was a kid. I always really didn't like guns. I grew up around guns where I lived as a kid, but they never were my thing. But I'm having to do this rifle work, and I felt intimidated, nervous. That I had to do all this stuff. And he took all this time to show me what he had learned about how to make stuff look cool when you're working with the guns. We talked about music. I was able to say, have you gotten to see any cool shows? And I think he was sneaking around and going to some of the cooler venues, like, probably under a cap and whatever, sunglasses. And the band he was listening to was at this 2007 I'd never heard of animal collective, who I now love, and he's turning me on to animal collective and Panda Bear.

And we talked about, he said he was just talking about his kid, and he asked if I had any, and I said, oh, man, I don't think I could do that. And he said some really nice stuff to me. You'll always think that. And then I feel like you'd actually be pretty good at it. And I think when it happens, it'll be. And here's the thing about an actor like Heath Ledger, that I want to be around people like that every time I go to work. Because you got two schools of thought. Got one actor here on set who's pacing around, who is taking a minute deep breaths and jumping up and down and getting in character and yelling at people, and actually, really.

Let him tell you different. He used to come to work by grappling hook.

No, Bale was super chill, actually. He wasn't like that. But I've been around those actors. Do you know what I mean? You've been around those guys who are just, you're Jeremy Strong's of the world. Oh, my God.

They're pain in the butt.

All of the energy is sucked into them and their needs and their process, and you've got gaffers trying to work on some light shit. And these guys are, I'm ready. It's now I'm in my zone.

I'm ready to. Yeah, it's hard.

So Heath is talking know music and bands, and, like, his voice is know dialect, and then they're, you know, ready. And then he's like, oh, I gotta go. And he's, like, just turning a little knob in his brain, his little masterful, genius brain of being that caliber of an artist, that he could then go and become this thing, this entity, this thing that transcended just like a movie villain. It embodied something that just tapped into everybody that saw that freaking movie. It did something to all of us. And I was just watching in awe. And then I thought about it, because I remember when he got, oh, this is the best moment I had with him, actually, remember when I heard that he got cast in the role? And I honestly was like, what?

Well, we all.

I said to him, I think this is why he liked me. First thing I said, we meet. He's very nice, very soft spoken. He's not outgoing by any means, but he was definitely warm and kind. And I said, how's it going? Are you having fun? And he said, I'm having the most fun. I mean, the best time. And I said, I got to be honest, when I heard you got this role, I thought it was a terrible idea. And he goes, me too. And I remember thinking, like, with that night's tale, guy is going to be handsome. Ten things I hate about you, but then you go back and you watch. Ten things I hate about you watch brokeback, you watch monsters ball, and you're like, he was like, our Brando, our James Dean. I even said that when I left, I went home and to my ex, I said something to the effective. I feel like I just spent a week with James Dean. Yeah, there's somebody that just. He had two scoops of it, whatever it is.

Yeah, I just love him. Just like, full joker makeup. He's like, you know, animal collective is like, unbelievable. Fucking great. This is more Chris Farley show elements. Sure. I'm going to add more. That was cool. So you've worked with some of the hottest names, right? I just heard. Unfortunately, I think the worm's eye is going to need to turn to Dune.

Yeah, please. How much you love Dune? How was it?

Because my brief foray into the world of Dune showed me that a lot of these. I'm going to go ahead and say, young gentlemen that are into dune are nuts.

Right?

Like, they're nuts about the content. When you got like, all right, we're going to do Dune. Because now you've been in a lot of nerd things before you got Dune, so you probably are used to the Internet as a whole, like, handling what you're sure. Right. Like, how does it feel to step into the role of fucking Brad Durh?

Yeah. Right.

You're taking over for Brad Durham, who is so intimidating.

It's really intimidating when you look at his resume and you think about every magical piece of freaking pixie dust he threw on every film he was in, and you look at just the. It's insane.

Chucky, he elevates child's play.

Certainly does. He makes that movie.

Every Deadwood monolog that he has is unbelievable.

I just saw Earl Brown yesterday, was also on Deadwood. And I've meant to ask him for. What was it like seeing some of the Durham stuff? Because it doesn't matter what it was. The David lynch stuff, you name it. He is incredible. I want to work with him. Somebody cast me in something with Brad. And his daughter's a great actor, too.

Really good. Yeah, she's really good too.

She's an actor. She was doing Chucky. She was on this new TV series, Chucky. Yeah.

He could play your dad.

Yeah, that would be so, dude. The story about that is really interesting because Denis, because it's the best character.

Almost in the book, besides Baron Hart.

It's a great character. It's a great character. Denis cast me in prisoners based on an audition tape, but he had recognized me from the Dark Knight, and we became fast friends and bonded quickly. And he kills me brutally in prisoners. I mean, it's a brutal death. Then he emails me several years later in a really interesting way at a really critical moment in my life when I was trying to decide between doing a big television series that didn't speak to me at all. To make a lot of money, are going to make my little indie film all creatures here below. And I was airing on the side of all creatures, and that was getting a lot of flak. That was at the point where I knew I didn't really want to work with agents anymore. And Denise emailed me and said, I killed you in prisoners. I want to bring you into the year 2049 and kill you in Blade Runner 2049. I was like, oh, my God. So then we do Blade Runner 24, and then he's prepping Dune. And I knew he was making Dune and he'd spoken about Dune as far back as when I first met him.

And that had been his thing. Like, as a kid, that was the thing that just. It was his thing.

He already understands.

Oh, he lived in it since he was a kid. And he goes, all right, I'm ready.

To kill you again. And he sent me a piece of.

Concept art that was really beautiful, but it was of me, but dead, like post poison. My friend Sam Hudecki does all of Denise concept arts. And he was like, working on the worms and doing all that stuff that was rad. So the news, I don't remember how it came out or how people responded to it, but I don't think I paid much mind to that. I was my own biggest fear. It was just the thought of stepping into the shoes because Brad did such an incredible job with the role. In Lynch's dune, he drinks the drink.

It sets his mind in motion, which.

They should have given you that. I wanted that speech. I really wanted that speech. I had two really big scenes, sadly, that were cut out of Dune. One is Piter drinking the sappho juice on the night of the invasion, when we come back to reclaim. And so what's happening is all of Iraq, the palace is just being fucking carpet bombed, and all of the Atreides are getting slaughtered by the beast. And I'm standing on this precipice, looking out at all of it, just sipping my sappho. And I've got Thufor Howett bound on his knees in front of me. And I got to give this long, luscious monolog about playing chess and why I'm always six steps ahead of you and I would have won. And sadly, when we were doing reshoots, Denise said to me, he's like, david, you were so great. That scene was so beautiful. But it just stopped the pace of this invasion. He's like, there's this huge action happening, and all of a sudden it stopped. So he's like, I got to cut it. And the other thing that got cut, which was not in the book, it was a scene that Denis was just playing with just creatively.

But I think it would have been really fun. I wish it had made. It is he gave me this torture organ where I'm playing this torture organ, and you can't see who it is that I'm torturing. But then the beast comes up and he's like, stop wasting time with all this stupid games that you play. And I'm like, you don't understand what I'm doing. Because what it ultimately was that I was doing is I had UA's wife. Yes, and I am torturing her, but with some kind. But what was it like, the opposite of the orgasm? Organ and barbarella. Exactly. The exact opposite. So, yeah, man, that was a dream come true. And now part two comes out. I'm going to go see it next week.

He's going to shave your eyebrows off. They're actually held on by magnets. You actually can't see. It's for ready removal per film.

These caterpillars strong enough, man. What is that actor who is in american beauty that played the guy that's banging Kevin, that's banging Annette Benning. He's the real estate guy. I love that actor. I feel like he and I have the most pronounced eyebrows in all of entertainment.

It's what pays the money.

Peter Gallagher.

Thank you, Peter Gallagher.

Not to be confused with Gallagher.

Gallagher. Gallagher. Gallagher, Gallagher. It's actually two names. Anything else? Because I want to make sure. Because we're going to get you out of here soon, but I can't.

I do want to ask you, please, David lynch. Okay.

You know, we're obsessed.

I love this story. We're obsessed with David lynch. We're obsessed with Twin Peaks. If you're not obsessed with Twin Peaks, there's something wrong with you. Okay, so I'd done the Dark Knight. I had history in the theater and my obsessions with things that I get obsessed about. And I come to Los Angeles in 2010. I went to New York briefly, met Eve in New York. We moved out to LA in 2010. And I took on this because no one would sign me. I was like, I've been in a movie. I couldn't get an agent. I couldn't get a manager. I was just going to workshops where you pay 25 or $40 to get to do scenes in front of a casting director, usually. And I would wake up every day because I still had enough from the commercials to keep myself afloat. And I was submitting myself through actors access, all these things. And I put these goals up on a poster board of stuff I've got to do this week. And how do I keep myself motivated? Making a lot of short films with my friend Colin, who went on to direct animals and all creatures here below and is now making all kinds of stuff.

But you got it. Goals, to me, have always worked this way. It's like I have the life goals, then I have the annual goals, and then I have the, like, what's going on month to month, week to week, and sometimes even day to day, right? How I run business as a creative.

Trying to make it in creative business, because it's, like, practical. You kind of break it down to a bunch of practical steps, and then, what's the big dream?

And I would wake up some days and be like, there's nothing for me to submit for here. There's nothing good happening here. And how am I going to do, if I ever am at a loss, look at those three big life goals and go, what could I do today to just get myself close out, read a book about it? So the three life goals were, one, work with the Muppets. It's still a goal of mine. I saw the Muppet movie as a kid in theater, and it changed my life. I remember Sweden's running through the screen at the end and thinking he was in the space with us. That's the first song I ever sang on a stage. Was the rainbow connection in kindergarten. Changed my life.

What a creepy child.

Yeah, it totally taught me comic timing. It's a brilliant movie. It's a masterpiece next to 2001. Those are my two. Like, if I said, this is magic of what movies can do to show my kids. And then James Bond villain. So that's up there. And then in the middle was to work with David lynch. That was one of the goals. So every time I'd be looking at the things and going, oh, what am I doing? So here's these actors access submissions where for those listening who don't know what that means, it's just you're an actor and you're paying usually a fee to be able to submit yourself, to be considered, to possibly get a chance to audition for something that doesn't even probably pay anything. That's the joy of being an actor. So I saw this breakdown and every time there would come one, I would just do the diligence of going, okay, well, if there's a casting director, quote unquote attached, I could at least do the research and see if that person maybe has connections somewhere, has worked on anything. And there was a USC short film. I can't remember what it was about or what the title was, but I did like the due diligence and I would cross reference things.

And I see that the casting director is a woman named Krista Huzar, who when I googled her, I saw that she worked for Joanna Ray, who was David Lynch's casting director.

This is extremely good advice, guys. I want you to remember that if you are trying to make it, this is how you do.

And I go, oh my God. And I submit myself for this thing and I get to go audition for it. Now, the script that I was sent, I couldn't understand really what I was doing in it. And it didn't necessarily connect with me, but it was cool. It was a weird, very arty script. So I really prepared the fuck out of it. I mean, I came ready and I went in and I gave it all I had. And the director, who was a USC student, this is for a student film, by the way. There was no pay. You were going to get credit and a DVD of the short film. And I did some adjustments and then I thanked Krista and I knew her from where I'd gone to the audition, what her office was. So I sent a postcard saying like, thank you. So know I'm massive fan of lynch, so just know how honored I was to get a chance to even show you anything. Blah blah blah, years go by, I'm continuing to hone my craft and do work on projects and blah blah, blah. And in 2016, I was in Chicago doing a short stint on a play, and I get a call that I was going to get an audition for a top secret thing for Showtime, and they wouldn't tell me anything about it.

And I went back to LA, and I go to the deep valley to this office and sign all these NDAs, and there's all these famous actors coming in and out of this audition room.

To get in the Bohemian Grove.

Speaking of Bohemian Grove, just your way.

To late night with the devil.

I want. Every time we say it too, we have to say late night with the devil is incredible because they find that perfect. That guy's voice is so perfect. Seventy s, and they put the perfect crackle on it. So I go in this room, and there is Joanna Ray in all of her glory, this incredible casting director, and there's a camcorder and a couch. And I'm like, she goes, and she sits me down. There's no copy, there's no audition sides. She goes, tell us what you did this morning. And I go, okay, well, I woke up with my kid and we watched the Muppet show. This is a true story. We watched the Muppet show. We watched the Alice Cooper and the Vincent Price episodes, because I love the spooky stuff. And we talked about that a little bit and asked me a couple other questions and then turns off. And I know at this point that that is the process for David Lynch's auditions. He doesn't do scripted sides. He does conversational stuff. He just wants to see I. So she ends and she goes, that was great. And she goes, do you know why you're.

This isn't the David lynch, like, twin Peaks thing, is it? She goes, yes, it is. But do you know why you're here? And I was like, I don't. And she's like. And sitting in the corner is this woman with a little pack of her acting names that she remembers. It's Krista Huzar who had been the assistant who had been at that casting, who remembered me.

Yeah, that's how it works.

Brought me in for this. I get to go be on set with David.

So they just book you from that?

They book me from that. And it's a really cool role. And we shot.

It's an awesome role.

I went for my first day. We parked at the Prince Hotel, which this great place in K Town, they have this incredible korean chicken. If you've never been. You guys got to go to the prince. It's amazing. I love it. It's the best. And then we shot at the LA Times building what was supposed to be offices of the casino. Me and Bret Gellman. And then comes Kyle McLaughlin. And here's David. And David's like. I mean, he is everything. I don't. He's. He's like a messiah to me. He's such a hero, such a guru. And I get to go introduce myself. I'm super nervous, as typical me. And we start working together, and I'm watching him, and I'm like, everything that you could dream. This is what the experience was like for me. It's like, imagine if Dorothy, like Toto, runs over and Yanks on the curtain at the wizard of Oz, and you go and you pull the curtain back. But instead of some janky dude pulling a bunch of levers and nodules. It's even more magical than what you saw with that big green head.

Because I heard he's like, funny and light.

Funny, light, warm, open. Totally knows exactly what he. This was a 700 and something page script that we were. He didn't shoot it like episodes of a TV show. He shot a 760 some page movie that he was then going to cut later into episodes of a TV show. So he would say something like, someone would have a question, and he'd be like, well, that's because on the scene that we're going back to this page and you're like, he knew everybody's lines. He knew exactly what he needed in every moment. And you watch him work with someone like Kyle, and he's like, okay, Kale, in this moment, you're going to put your hands on the table and slowly rise to face one another. And you follow him. You just do it. Because he knows exactly what he needs. And watching the way their dynamic work.

Together, it's like evil Wes Anderson and.

David, he still smokes, and he was carrying an ashtray. And I think by rules of whatever location, we had to carry a little fire extinguisher around with him. And he would say, instead of once more, they always go, like, once more. What do they say?

Safety or for safety?

Yeah, instead of that, he'd go, okay, once more for security. And then at one point, he went up to the roof of the. And we had this pa, who was so sweet, helping me get me, like, sodas and blah, blah, blah. Just like a guy. Help. Being a helper, working so hard. I was watching this guy run around and bust his ass all day. And I saw David sneaking up to the roof to have a cigarette. And I was like, oh, can I have a cigarette? He's like, oh, yeah, you have to go up to the roof. And I go up there, and there's David standing there, like, staring out at the city of Los Angeles, like, puffing on his cigarette. And I'm standing with this kid, not a kid. He was in his twenty s. And he said, he's making conversation, he's so nice. And he said, do you have a family? I said, yeah, you have kids? I go, yeah, I've got a son named Arlo. And he turns, he goes, hey, dad. And I realize this is David's son.

Who is this filmmaker in his own.

Right who was just busting ass and helping for the day. And he goes, he's got a kid named Arlo. Oh, that's a wonderful name. What is that from? And I say, where the story of Arlo's name comes from? He goes, you know, monsanto, I think they may have been responsible for the tainted spinach at the goes on this. Like he's in a thought about Monsanto and about GMOs and about all this. And this is the last I got to tell you guys. This is so good. So then we went to the Morongo casino out in the desert, and we lived there together. We all lived in the hotel. And then we'd have, for lunch, we'd have the buffet together. And we're shooting at one point and he's sitting at monitor 5ft away from me, and I'm over his shoulder just staring at him. And in my brain I thought, okay, man, I know you've got power. If you can hear me right now, give me a sign. Yeah, give me a sign, David. Please give me a sign. Give me a sign. And I just sat and I waited and I waited. And all of a sudden, I swear on all that I know, he goes and just wiles.

At me.

I was like, he's magic. And he's plugged in.

He's deeply plugged in.

We all should be. His work with meditation and the subconscious and getting into who we are and being present. I don't do TM. I've begun a meditation journey, though. My friend Steve Ag does TM, and he would, like, I think I might try it. But what I'm getting out of my.

Wife, Natalie does TM.

Meditation right now has been immensely helpful for me in working on just a lot of the stuff that I'm kind of going through and working through, like, psychologically and therapy stuff. It's really helpful.

You ever do autoerotic asphyxiation? Well, there's another that really centers me.

Keratine. I was always afraid of participating in that activity because I'm not a guy to say no to anything. I was just like, there's that terrifying reality that you're going to be performing an interview with the police. And they're like, she said, please. Okay. Hands behind your back, sir. We got an actor they know. They're the first ones to call TMZ. Are you kidding me? They get a tip fee for that? No.

Yeah, that's why I always put a plastic bag over my head before we begin, just to kind of get me in the headset. The mindset of doing the show.

Oxygen is everything.

I am so happy. This has been awesome.

It's been great. Thank you so much for coming out. Oh, I want to keep doing it again.

Thank you for letting us ask all the corny questions that we can't ask you, like when we're just hanging out.

And last time it was pretty fun, you guys. We had a great response to the goth Lee and I getting to talk about our comic book and all that nerdness was so fun. But I was sad that we couldn't talk about all the other stuff like the dune of it all or the other movies of it. And because I know they're listening. A big shout out. And thanks to Eve and Karen for always turning me on to you guys. Now I'm so turned on. Thank you.

So late night with the devil. When is the official marina?

22Nd March 22 in cinemas near you. Be the first person. Don't scream too loud for late night with the devil.

It's going to be good. It's going to freak people out. And we love the devil.

It's fun. It's a fun movie, too. And then the stuff that it draws from and the reality behind it is disturbing. So it's right up your alley. Yeah, it's awesome.

I'm excited for the sequel. The morning show with the devil. Yeah, I mean, we already have one. Joe Scarborough.

What's the weekend? It's the Sunday morning with the devil.

Church sucks, right?

Yeah.

Actually this devil guys make a lot of sense.

I will say one of the most jarring experiences of me moving to LA is I like to watch KTLA in the morning and then just you showing up on a paisley set in full goth talking to Sam. Yeah, talking minute. The Hollywood minute. No, it'd be better. Even better. Like, forget Jim Lair. What if it was Newshour with the dev.

With the dev.

There's a lot of variations on this.

Now we got to do sports center with the devil. Well, thank you. Namaste.

To catch a predator with the devil.

Namaste.

No, thank you.

Hail Satan.

No, thank you. Hail David.

Really good work today. Really good work.

Really good work.

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